Soldiers charged with Keith Clarke murder freed
The three soldiers who were charged in the killing of businessman Keith Clarke have been freed of all charges. Sitting judge Justice Dale Palmer, in handing down the ruling in the Supreme Court on Thursday, said the men have no case to answer.
The Jamaica Defence Force has expressed solidarity with the now-free men sharing appreciation for the justice system’s ‘fair assessment of the evidence’ but was also careful to offer condolences to Clarke’s family.
The decision comes 14 years after Clarke’s shooting death at his Kirkland Close home in Red Hills, St Andrew.
The three soldiers — lance corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley, as well as Private Arnold Henry — were accused of killing the man while searching for Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and others who, it was believed, were hiding out in the businessman’s home.
Clarke was said to have had barricaded himself in his room, on top of a closet with a firearm. His widow contended that when the soldiers gained entrance to the room and shot him, her husband had his back turned and was climbing down from his perch.
He was shot more than 20 times, with testimony from medical experts indicating his organs had ruptured from the force. Former chief forensic pathologist in the Legal Medicine Unit at the Ministry of National Security Dr Dinesh Rao, had concurred with the wife’ position during the trial.
Two years after the incident, Tingling, Buckley and Henry were charged with murder following a ruling from the Director of Public Prosecutions. It took another six years for trials to begin in 2018 but the process was halted again when JDF attorney’s presented immunity certificates.
The documents, dating back to 2016, and issued by then Minister of National Security, Peter Bunting, attempted to shield the accused from prosecution for their actions during the 2010 operation.
In February 2020, the Constitutional Review Court ruled that the certificates were unfair and unreasonable, and ordered that a trial be held to determine whether the certificates could halt the murder trial. In April 2024, Palmer ruled that that they could not and the trial continued to its eventual conclusion on Thursday.
